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Kracauer. Photographic Archive, a companion volume to The Past s Threshold: Essays on Photography, collects previously unpublished photographs by Siegfried and Elisabeth, ´Lili, Kracauer. With its remarkably rich material, the book tells the story of the Kracauer s close working relationship, from their marriage in Germany to their escape to Paris and the war and postwar years in the United States. While neither Kracauer nor his wife trained in photography, their portraits, city views, and landscapes evince impressive aesthetic and technical skill, while simultaneously shedding light on their lives marked by exile and flight.

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The photography book "Kracauer. Photographic Archive" is a collection of previously unpublished photographic material from the estate of the sociologist, journalist and film theorist Siegfried Kracauer. Portrait, city and landscape photographs give insights into the life of the writer and his wife Elisabeth, known as Lili – a life marked by flight and exile. The photographic portraits of Kracauer from the 1930s on were all taken by his wife, while prints, contact sheets, rolls of film and written material reveal that Kracauer took pictures himself, too. Neither Kracauer nor his wife was a professional photographer, yet their photos testify to the aesthetic and technical achievements of their collaborative photographic practice: the eye of the great photography theorist combined with that of the art historian and observant, self-taught photographer Lili Kracauer. The book also tells the story of Lili and Siegfried Kracauer´s close working relationship – from the early 1930s following their marriage in Germany, to exile in Paris and the war and post-war years in the USA.

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7 - 10 Foreword (Maria Zinfert)11 - 20 The Image of Siegfried Kracauer (Maria Zinfert)79 - 88 Lili Kracauer. A Biographical Sketch (Maria Zinfert)

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"´The photograph becomes a ghost because the costumed mannequin was once alive,´ Kracauer wrote in 1927. In that sense, the most haunting image is this newly-minted American standing by the billboard for a roadside attraction, dressed in a suit and tie, hair slightly windblown, expression unconsciously mimicking that of the poster´s stoic Indian chief."
(J. Hoberman, New York Review of Books)

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